Presidential candidate Howard Dean claimed victory in Washington’s non-binding Democratic primary on Tuesday, in an event attended only by the most diehard of Georgetown Democrats. The organizers of the presidential primary, the first in the 2004 election, described it as a partial success in drawing national attention to D.C.’s lack of representation in Congress.
In the latest of many efforts to raise the issue of D.C representation, Democratic organizers pushed last year to move the date of the primary from May to Jan. 13, making it the first vote in 2004 on the democratic nomination.
The Democratic National Committee, however, rejected the proposal to make Jan. 13 the date of D.C.’s official, binding vote, and convinced all the major candidates except front-runner Howard Dean to withdraw from the race.
For many supporters of D.C. statehood, the DNC’s decision helped deflate the strength of the effort. Linda Greenan, the Chairperson of Washington’s Second Democratic Ward and Georgetown University’s Assistant Vice President for External Affairs, seemed disappointed by the rejection of the city’s bid. “Clearly it would have been more successful if it had been a binding primary, but I think it was a good effort,” she said.
Georgetown students and staff who voted in the primary said there were few other people at the voting booth at Hardy Middle School.
“There was nobody there-I’m sure students went but not that many because it was the first day of classes, and a lot of Georgetown students aren’t registered as Democrats but as Independents or Republicans,” said Eric Lashner, (CAS ‘05) a leader of Campaign Georgetown, a non-partisan organization dedicated to encouraging student involvement in national and local politics.
Nevertheless, supporters of the early primary found some good amongst the disappointment. According to the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, the official percentage of registered voters who participated in the election was nearly 13 percent-a notable rise from the 8.5 percent who voted in the primary in 2000. The primary also received unexpected coverage in several other major national media sources including the Washington Post and CBS News, said Greenan.
“I think that it was a really good idea, but it’s a shame that it was only a preference primary,” Lashner said.
